Is Social Media Encouraging Listening to Opposing Political Views?

Emerging media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have taken to another level our ability to comment on and impact political and policy decisions. Politicians and policymakers have recognized this as evidenced by their willingness to join social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

For example, all forty-two current members of the Congressional Black Caucus have Facebook accounts while 38 members have Twitter accounts. Within the past three weeks two members of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, became residents of the Twitter-verse.

Black Americans in particular have been driving participation in the social media space. According to the Pew Research Center, 28% of Black American adults online use Twitter, compared with 12% of White Americans and 14% of Hispanic Americans. Overall, 13% of all online adults use Twitter.

The Internet is thought of a medium for exchanging ideas and data, but on social network services (SNS), a portion of users may be locking themselves into one narrative in response to views they don’t agree with.

According to Pew, moderate or liberal Internet users are more likely to use SNS than conservatives. Approximately 74% of liberals use SNS while 70% of moderates use SNS. Sixty percent of conservative Internet users are on SNS.

A significant number of SNS users have discovered through postings to SNS that their friends had different political ideologies from them. According to Pew, 38% of SNS users became aware that their friends were not on the same page with them politically. As Pew found out, taking politically opposing views could be detrimental to maintaining friendships online.

While not an overly significant number, Pew found that 18% of SNS users have either blocked, un-friended, or hidden someone from their timelines for committing one of the following offenses:

• Posted too frequently about political subjects; • Posted something about politics or issues they disagree with or found offensive; • Argued with the user or with someone the user knows; • Posted something the user thought others would find offensive; or • Disagreed with something the user said about politics.

Liberals appear the most willing to show on social networks their lack of tolerance for opposing political views. Twenty-eight percent of liberals take one the above actions toward political expression in their social networks. Sixteen percent of conservatives and 14% of moderates take action against other subscribers’ online political views.

Rather than face the possibility of getting the friendship ax, 22% of online users avoid posting or linking to political content. That is too bad. Political efficacy demands a discussion of the issues; no matter how opposed a friend’s position may be to ours. Efficacy requires citizens have command of the issues making up the discussion. Engaging online could be the first step toward strengthening a position or realizing that you were wrong.

On the flip-side, voters have the right to associate, in cyberspace or on Earth, with people they have an affinity with. Social media usage might merely be reflecting how society reacts to political comments and news when obtained outside of Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Alton Drew provides advocacy and consulting services in the areas of economic and personal liberty, broadband, and energy.
Follow him on Twitter @altondrew; Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/alton.drew.5; or visit him at www.altondrew.com.
The ideas and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author, and have complete editorial independence from any Politic365 partners, sponsors, or advertisers. For additional information about Politic365, please visit http://politic365.com/about/.

1 COMMENT

Ideally social media is a great space for discussion political points of view. However, what we have observed is that often times discussions in many social settings including blogs fall into two categories. Either a partisan rally points where people of similar views simply reinforce each others position; or digital mud slinging in which civility is cast aside and attacks and name calling. This infographic from Lab 42 provides some interesting insight into the number people that changed an opinion of a friend due to something that friend posted about politics. I am working on a team that is creating a forum to bring people of opposing views together to discuss issues and political problems. We believe out of that disagreement some creative solutions can emerge. The site is Banterit.com and would welcome you to join us there or on twitter @banterit to help us

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